Kyno Support

What does this mean for Kyno?

LEXINGTON, Mass., March 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Signiant Inc. today announced the acquisition of Lesspain Software, a German provider of embedded media processing software and the desktop application Kyno. Lesspain's talent and technology will be used to extend the functionality of Signiant's market-leading Software Defined Content Exchange (SDCX) SaaS platform, adding powerful tools for interaction with media assets. With nearly one million users worldwide, the platform connects more than 50,000 Media & Entertainment companies of all sizes.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/signiant-acquires-lesspain-software-to-enhance-sdcx-saas-platform-301247256.html

Thank you for sharing Steve.

I won't hold my breast but let's cross our fingers.

Love the Kyno, but I hesitate to use it since there is no proof that Signiant  continues to invest in the development (it may not support new strategy?). Software updates is a tanginble proof that something is actually happening.

Are there any feasible alternative for prosumers? Davinci Resolve has Media management function, but I haven't used it, just tested. Before I started to use the Kyno, i used Adobe LR (I created a proxy files for BRAW clips...). For me, Kyno with the BRAW gen 5 color science support would be a great solution. And many people have requested ProRes RAW support. Bring it on, Signiant!

I'm pretty sure you can generate ProRes already in Kyno 1.8.1 (the current version). The only alternative to Kyno I've tried is Adobe Bridge. It's free, but last time I used it there wasn't much to the tool, which is probably why it was free. It couldn't read H265 for example, didn't have a built in viewer, etc. I won't pay monthly fees for Adobe products (but happily paid $300 for DaVinci Resolve Studio). I haven't tried doing extensive media management in DaVinci. Using Kyno kind of defeats the use of my Speed Editor since I've already done the rough work in Kyno. I've built a video database in Kyno with subclips, and I've built a database in Lightroom for images. I have an old copy of Lighroom 6 standalone that I continue to use but it doesn't like modern video formats so I separate video & images to different locations on disk. I wouldn't do Lightroom again if I was starting from scratch, with the high monthly fee.

It lives! From another thread today:

That's good to hear.

If/when they do a release it will be my first update since purchase, but longer than a year, so I wonder if I'll have to pay for the maintenance release...

I found this on fcp.co. Note that it was back in March of 2021 when Signiant acquired Lesspain: "Core members of the Lesspain team will remain based in Germany, where Signiant plans to grow its development organization. According to Robert Krüger of Lesspain, the decision to join forces with Signiant was clear. “We’re excited about the opportunity to become part of an innovative, customer-centric organization that is committed to the media industry. Our deep experience with content processing and management will enable meaningful contributions as the company continues to advance the SDCX platform vision beyond file transfer.”

We've been using Kyno for several years, but have paused until the next update comes out. We were concerned that Signiant might morph it into another product, but it seems that may not be the case. We're optimistic. For those that can't wait, our second choice to Kyno was KeyFlow Pro 2, however it has not had any significant development for a while (surmising from updates only). With all these software companies you never know what amazing development is actually going on behind the scene. In the mean time, for those cutting on FCP, we are using Arctic Whiteness, Final Cut Library Manager. Not a replacement for Kyno, but it's quite a nifty tool we will be using from now on, in addition to Kyno.

I've sent several emails the last 6 months and not heard anything. Even if they are coming out with version 1.9 they might have killed Kyno since the communication has been almost nil... besides the email Steve got saying it's coming soon. The word soon is so misused and do not insure trust...

I good way would be to give everyone a free upgrade to 1.9 to restore trust. Kyno is a great product and I really wish they will keep updating it and improve the communication to old and new users.

I can say it feels very irritating (not to say 'undead'), if you want to actually buy a software, that is – at least officially – still marketed, and get no reply at all for 10 days on a (pre-)sales question...

I wish it would still be lingering, even if on life support, or in a deep hibernation and reconvalescence phase.

– but not hearing back for more than a week and two mails after declared wish to buy a license feels pretty much like a dead zone...

very sad about this.

... okay. there was a response.

so, in best case there are some reaarangements in the machine room, while the counter might not always be staffed these days.

but once contact was established everything was as good as one can expect...

It's been over a year and the Kyno has had no updates and it actually so sluggish its almost not worth using anymore. Such a huge letdown. I've tried on a specd out M1 Ultra Studio, M1 Max MBP, a specd out Intel MBP and its all the same, very very slow performance. So disappointed.

Hear you JJ, well sad indeed.

And sadly that's probably why it's now gone - these great independent ideas people create awesome projects like Kyno then the 'big boys'just swallow them up for the big bucks. Then the customers that first supported that wonderful independent idea and helped it come to fruition get shafted and forgotten about in the process. 

What I find hard to believe is that no competitor emerged to take over this market when there is obviously a need. I don't know about you guys but I found no solution that satisfied me.

It's a shame!

Oh well...